They made the run to Tampa in two days. The transports were being loaded
with ammunition, provisions and all the paraphernalia of war as they
arrived and Kenneth went on board with the last detachment of Rough
Riders.
Hester bore up like the brave little soldier she was. There was never a
tear, though she clung at the last to Kenneth as if she could not let
him go. That was for but a moment. The next she stood erect and smiling
on the rear platform of "The Hustle" waving him off. The picture Kenneth
carried away with him cheered all the hours of all the days to come. He
had only to close his eyes to see a slender girlish figure with head
thrown back and radiant, unflinching eyes smiling and smiling into his
very heart. And all through the desperate fight before San Juan when the
bullets hissed and all was deafening, blinding chaos, rang her last
words, "Fight for your country and me--be as brave an officer as Daddy."
* * * * *
At the hotel at San Francisco, when our party reached there, was found
an accumulation of mail forwarded from Radnor for the Doctor. A letter
from his sister was read and handed to Julie with a smile.
"My Dear Philip," it began:--"Your letter telling me of your
engagement and probable speedy marriage to Julie Dale was no
surprise to me. I had always known you were in love with her or you
would never have been so idiotically approving of all the crazy
things she did. I will say, though, that if you intended to marry
you might have done worse. I understand from Mrs. Davis and Jessie,
whom I saw last week in London (they have just been presented at
Court) that the girls were recognized pretty generally by our set
before they went away. Mrs. Lennox must have done some campaigning!
However, people quickly forget things, and all that vulgar cooking
may be regarded merely as the freakishness of two headstrong girls.
I hope you will remember that she is headstrong and keep a tight
rein over her. As your wife, of course her position in Radnor will
be unimpeachable.
"Now that you are to have a housekeeper I shall avail myself of
invitations from English friends and remain here into the winter
when I shall probably join Lord and Lady Wynne in a trip into Egypt.
I may decide to make England my home. I prefer it to the States and
should not under any circumstances think of returning while that
tiresome war is going on.
"The housekeeping keys are in my top bureau drawer, left hand end.
Tell Julie I am most particular that the linen, especially that not
in constant use, should be frequently aired, and the blankets must
go down on the line in the yard once a week. There are other things
which a flighty young person should know and which I shall write her
at length later. I hope that dog is not to be allowed the freedom of
the house. I shudder to think of it!
"Affectionately,
Mary."
Julie laughed gayly when she had finished.
"Poor Miss Ware!" she said, "she still regards us as monsters of
iniquity. Am I a headstrong young thing?"
"Of course," quizzically. "Don't you feel the tight rein I hold over
you?" taking her face in his hands.
For answer she kissed him, to the embarrassment of Bridget who had
knocked unheard and entered the room at that moment.
Julie devoted herself to Hester these days and succeeded in keeping her
busy and diverted. Hester's great wish had been to follow Kenneth to
Cuba, but she allowed herself to be convinced both by him and the others
that it would be an unwise thing to do. She knew no Spanish and nothing
of nursing beyond the limited experience she had gained in caring for
her father, and it was the season of yellow fever, to which, her
vitality having been greatly exhausted by the strain of the previous
winter, she would be dangerously susceptible. But the old wish to become
a Red Cross nurse was more than ever strong within her and this desire
they all encouraged and approved, feeling that if Kenneth were to be
long in the field Hester's happiness would lie in being near him and
administering to the sick and wounded men. So she plunged into Spanish
with an excellent teacher in San Francisco while Dr. Ware brought her
books on nursing, gave her practical talks on surgery and promised to
get her into a training school for nurses as soon as they returned to
Radnor at the end of July.
The newspapers were her solace and despair--they said so little and so
much! With heads together she and Julie devoured them, reading every
word. The newsboys' cry, "Extra, Extra!" filled her with apprehension.
She had had but one letter from Kenneth, written as they were about to
land with General Shafter at Baiquiri. Before there was time to hear
again, the papers blazed with the news of the desperate attack on San
Juan, and the Rough Riders became the heroes of the nation.
Hester, scanning the paper with wide eyes, searched for the list of dead
and wounded. With beating heart her finger went down the line and
stopped.
"Landor, Kenneth, Second Lieutenant, Troop--, Roosevelt's Rough Riders,
wounded in the thigh."
She lived through the next ten days of suspense like a person in a
dream. Her impulse had been to start immediately for Cuba, and Mr.
Landor wrote that he was going down and would take her with them. But
Dr. Ware, the far-seeing, advised them both to wait. News would soon
come direct from Kenneth and it was probable that he would be sent home
on sick leave before they could get down to him. Seeing the wisdom of
this, Mr. Landor wired Dr. Ware that he should wait. And Hester waited.
Julie never left her. She buoyed her up night and day with the belief
that Kenneth would not die.
The papers in their later and more detailed accounts of the attack and
capture of San Juan, spoke in high praise of the daring bravery of
Lieutenant Landor who had incited his men to the highest pitch of
enthusiasm by his unflinching spirit, which carried everything before
him. Later in the official report from General Shafter, Kenneth Landor,
wounded before San Juan, was given honorable mention.
Then one day came to Hester a letter in an unknown hand. It was written
from the field hospital and told Mrs. Landor that her husband was
recovering; that the operation upon his thigh had been successful; that
Mr. Landor's cable to send the Lieutenant home had been received and
that already at headquarters arrangements were being made to get the
wounded who could be moved aboard a transport off by the end of the
week. That Landor himself knew nothing of all this, for he was too weak
to be consulted, but he, the surgeon, assured her there was no cause for
alarm and he hoped when Mr. Landor was safely home again she would get
him well and return him speedily--the troop could not afford to spare
for long so gallant an officer.
Hester read this precious document until it was worn to shreds. And
Julie and her husband took her back to Radnor as soon as the paper
informed them that the transport had started.
Dr. Ware and Hester went together to the dock to meet him. Mr. Landor
was too unnerved to leave the house and Julie remained with him, helping
him through the tedious hours that intervened between the time when a
clerk had telephoned from the office to the house that the transport was
sighted down the harbor and the moment when the carriage stopped at the
door.
They brought him into his father's house on a stretcher, Hester walking
by his side, her hand in his. Weak and wan he was, but smiling, turning
from one to the other with a hungry devouring gaze that made his father
choke and leave the room.
What a home-coming that was! Very still, lest the invalid be excited,
but very impressive, and always to be remembered by those who witnessed
it; for hearts spoke through eyes what tongues dared not utter and a
suppressed sense of exaltation mingled in their love.
It is a very beautiful thing to have a hero in one's family. So at least
thought the Dale girls, even though it was a very refractory hero, who
sometimes mutinied and always disavowed any claim to distinction
whatever.
Under Dr. Ware's guidance, Hester and Bridget took care of him. He was
home on a two-months' sick leave and hoped at the end of that time to
rejoin his troop wherever they then might be; but Dr. Ware, though he
said nothing, thought it extremely improbable that Kenneth would be
sufficiently recovered to go into the field before October. By that time
the war might be over. Who could tell?
Mr. Landor sat for hours at a time in the sick room listening quietly
while Hester, close to the bed, read the papers to her soldier husband,
who never took his eyes off her. And the father did much thinking at
that time. His stern repellent nature was softening under the warmth of
Hester's sunny presence and more than once she had looked up suddenly to
find him gazing at them with misty eyes.
Jack came, too, satisfied to be permitted merely to gaze at his hero.
Now and then, as a mark of high favor, Peter Snooks was allowed to lie
on Kenneth's bed. The little rascal seemed to appreciate the privilege
and kept very still, sometimes licking Kenneth's hand, as much as to say
he knew how to behave in a sick room--had he not spent hours at a time
with Major Dale?
Julie was in and out many times a day, doing a thousand little things
for the comfort and happiness of the invalid. She and Hester were near
neighbors, for the Landor mansion was but two doors down from Dr. Ware's
on the water side of Crana Street.
And here in Radnor where they had fought and won so great a victory,
"those Dale girls" began a new life.
End of Project Gutenberg's Those Dale Girls, by Frank Weston Carruth